It is known to secure a bushing within an opening in a structural wall by positioning the bushing within the opening, holding it in place, and then forcing an expansion mandrel through the bushing to radially expand the bushing into an interference fit with the opening.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,809,420, granted Mar. 7, 1989, to Michael A. Landy, Todd L. Thompson and Larry I. Wiemann, and U.S. Pat. No. 5,433,100, granted Jul. 18, 1995, to Eric T. Easterbrook, Todd L. Thompson and Mark R. Weiss, both disclose the use of a mandrel alone for installing bushings in openings in a work member.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,557,033, granted Dec. 10, 1985, to Robert L. Champoux, discloses using a mandrel alone for cold expanding an opening in a work member for the purpose of introducing fatigue life enhancing compressive residual stresses in the work member immediately around the opening in the work member.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,103,548, granted Apr. 14, 1992, to Leonard F. Reid and Roger T. Dolstad discloses the use of a mandrel and a split sleeve together for installing a tubular bushing in an opening in a work member and at the same time introducing fatigue life enhancing compressive residual stresses in the work member.
The contents of U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,557,033; 4,809,420 and 5,103,548 are hereby incorporated herein by this specific reference.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,835,688, granted Sep. 17, 1974, to John O. King, Jr. and U.S. Pat. No. 3,949,535, granted Apr. 13, 1976, also to John O. King, Jr. each discloses a method of both installing a seamless tubular member in openings in two members to be joined and expanding the material immediately surrounding the openings for the purposes of fatigue life enhancement. The seamless tubular members disclosed by these patents have a flange at one end that contacts the side of one of the members from which the tubular member is inserted. U.S. Pat. No. 3,949,535 discloses providing a flare on the end of the sleeve opposite the flange to assist in retaining the sleeve in the opening in the workpiece. This flare is formed by the movement of the mandrel through the sleeve and it requires a particular end construction of the sleeve.
Thus, it is known to provide a bushing with a radial flange at one of its ends. There is a need for providing a bushing that has a radial flange at each of its ends. For example, when bushings are used in a lug or clevis, there is a potential of face-to-face contact between the joined parts. Flanges on both ends of the bushing would protect the face-to-face contact of the parent material in which the bushing has been installed. The flanges could be used to react a load applied to the lug or clevis along a line parallel to the bore of the lug or clevis. For example, in a landing gear lug on an aircraft, the lug might see a load transmitted to the pin through the lug perpendicular to the axis of the bore, due to the weight of the aircraft. However, it could also see an axial load due to the fore and aft loading of the lug. A second flange on a bushing could also be used to provide a surface on which a nut and washer may seat when a threaded pin is used to retain the pin in the joint. The principal object of the present invention is to provide tubular bushings having flanges at both of their ends. Another object is to provide methods of making and installing tubular bushings that have flanges at both ends.
U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,835,688 and 3,949,535, and the other above-identified patents should be carefully considered for the purpose of putting the present invention into proper prospective relative to the prior art.